


The Social Experiment

by AlltheFluff



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-07-18 10:54:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7312159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlltheFluff/pseuds/AlltheFluff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It’s really easy. All we have to do is touch noses for a minute straight and see if one of us starts to feel closer to the other.” </p><p>Or, the one in which Nagisa doesn't realize how dense he really is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Social Experiment

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Cordero Roman's video "Touching Nose to Nose (Social Experiment)" because I am shipping trash ｡◕‿◕｡

“You’re not doing homework, Nagisa-kun.”

Unmistakably true. Instead of studying like they had agreed to, Nagisa was scrolling through some comments from a video that he had randomly come across. Most of them were pretty hilarious and cute, so he had been reading them for several minutes, not even noticing how Rei had been keeping an eye on him. Eh, the comments _were_ in English, so _technically_ he was studying. Kind of. Rei didn’t think so, though.

“I’m practicing for our English exam.”

“We just had one. And you passed it, so you should focus on our other subjects,” Rei retorted smartly and pushed up his glasses as if he had just come up with the wittiest come-back ever.

“Did you just admit that you should focus on other subjects at the cost of another one?” Nagisa looked him straight in the eye for the first time in ten minutes and watched as his friend’s face steadily turned red.

“N-no!”

“You totally did.”

“You — _Nagisa-kun_!” Rei screeched and instantly shoved his face back into his notebook, which made Nagisa in turn burst out laughing.

Teasing Rei was way too easy and sometimes, he almost felt sorry for him, but it was too much fun and he knew Rei didn’t mind _that_ much.

With a lazy smile still plastered on his face, Nagisa looked back at his phone and suddenly got an amazing but also stupid idea. Then again, he wasn’t afraid of anything and was willing to take a leap at any given moment. But it was Rei, the most socially awkward person he had ever known and who probably wasn’t up for a social experiment thing. _Then again,_ Rei would love the idea of being part of an experiment, especially a social one. Well, not exactly a social one, since it was just the two of them sitting in his perfectly organized room, and they were friends, not strangers and—

… Ugh, that train of thought really gave Nagisa a headache, so he gave himself a push in his mind and blurted out, “Wanna do a social experiment with me?”

As expected, Rei had not seen that coming and slowly raised his eyes from his work, blinking at him. “Excuse me?”

“A social experiment. With me,” Nagisa repeated, the lazy grin turning into a radiating smile because he literally couldn’t wait to give it a try. “It’ll be like doing homework, but different.”

“This has absolutely nothing to do with our current projects at school, though.”

“It’s really easy.” Nagisa ignored him and got up to his feet, not bothering to straighten his shirt. “All we have to do is touch noses for a minute straight and see if one of us starts to feel closer to the other.”

Rei’s eyes grew twice their size behind his glasses and he simply stared at Nagisa for a couple of seconds, his cheeks resembling the color of his glasses. It was not as if Nagisa had something up his sleeve (except for making Rei uncomfortable), but since Rei was already cringing at the _idea_ of them being so close, he couldn’t wait to actually be nose to nose with him.

“This is completely pointless, though,” Rei uttered behind his hand, which was covering the lower half of his face. “We already know each other and get along well, going against the entire concept of a social experiment.”

“I know, but it’s just for fun!” Nagisa dropped himself in front of him, and Rei nearly shrieked in surprise. “I’m not gonna eat you, or anything! I’ll time it, okay? Here, lemme get my stopwatch…”

Still very close to Rei, Nagisa unlocked his phone, tapped a few times on the screen and held up it up to him, showing him the timer. Rei looked unsure for a few more seconds until he grumbled something under his breath, took off his glasses and gave him a nod.

“Fine. But if you back out, we’re going to do homework for half an hour straight. No complaints.”

“And if _you_ back out, you’ll buy me the biggest and most expensive ice-cream we can find.”

Since he knew Rei was going to protest, he quickly shuffled closer, laying his legs on either side of Rei’s body so he was sitting between the other’s legs. Maybe it would’ve been better if they had been standing, but this was fine, too, and he got the exact reaction he wanted: Rei sputtering and squirming at their proximity and not replying to his snarky deal. They were going to be even closer in a few seconds anyway.

Nagisa stuck his tongue between his teeth and gave one final tap on the screen before resting his nose against Rei’s. Both of them went silent and focused on the other’s eyes, sometimes drifting off towards the tips of their noses but always going back to their original target.

It was as if something was tugging at the corners of his lips because Nagisa wanted nothing more than to smile. Continuously feeling Rei’s slightly larger nose against his own, looking into his eyes and feeling his short breaths over his lips were completely new and exciting things. And since Rei’s eyes were always a bit smaller behind his glasses, he felt like he had front row tickets to enjoy his original, vibrant eye color to the max. He also noticed he didn’t mind them exchanging body heat at all, if anything, he was enjoying it. It was just like hugging Rei, except he wasn’t using his arms.

Rei didn’t look very bothered, either. At some point, he had closed his eyes and was just slowly breathing through his nose. Or maybe he was mentally writing a special speech about how inappropriate this was. The latter was probably more fitting and applicable to their current situation.

“Thinking about quitting?” Nagisa mumbled softly, feeling like he might ruin the moment by raising his voice to his usual volume.

“Quite the opposite, Nagisa-kun.” A smirk was evident in Rei’s voice and he opened his eyes, instantly pinning Nagisa with his gaze. “I was trying to imagine how lovely it would be to not have you complaining about homework in the next thirty minutes.”

Narrowing his eyes, Nagisa pressed a little closer, making Rei almost back away. “You were squealing not two seconds ago. Where’d all your confidence come from?”

“I have my resources,” was the nerdy reply and Nagisa resisted the urge to poke him in the stomach because that would be cheating.

They returned to being quiet and Nagisa guessed there were about twenty seconds left. And in those said twenty seconds, they kept staring at each other. At some point, they were so close that Nagisa was 87% sure their lips almost touched, or at least, it felt that way because he kept feeling Rei’s deep breaths over the sensitive skin. It didn’t matter, he wanted his ice-cream so he didn’t budge and simply gave him a mischievous look.

After ten more seconds, Nagisa also noticed he had been inhaling Rei’s scent all along. Maybe he hadn’t noticed because he was so used to it, but now that he was aware of it, his eyes went a little hazier. No wonder he wanted to be close to Rei all the time, well, not just because he smelled good, but also because hugging Rei made him feel happy and loved. Even when Rei scolded him for invading his personal bubble since he _always_ hugged him back in the end.

His foggy sight barely noticed Rei leaning in closer again and this time, also tilted his head to the side a little. His cheeks burned and warmth was spreading itself through his body, creating the urge to start fanning himself. Breathing was become a little harder because he was feeling so hot and sticky. He felt his heartbeat in his throat, his eyelids getting heavier, his palms getting sweaty _just_ because Rei was leaning in closer. Wasn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Was this Rei’s way of getting him to back out?

A hand touched his lower leg gently and Nagisa nearly jumped at the touch. What was Rei _doing_ to him?

“… Rei-chan—?”

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Nagisa locked his phone without taking his eyes off of Rei’s and held still. “What now?”

“Deal’s still on. First one to pull back loses.”

“You’re on.”

Every time they talked, his lips tickled. He had no idea what was going on anymore and how long they would have to sit like this because his back would probably start hurting at some point. Still, this was inexplicably fun and he wouldn’t mind staying like this for a couple of minutes, even if Rei kept giving him that stupid look.

Seriously, Rei looked even sillier than usual, Nagisa thought, holding back a chuckle.

He didn’t dare tear his gaze away in case Rei had something planned to make him win the game (it had officially become a game to him now). Especially now that Rei was doing that thing again where he turned his head slightly, making sure that their noses wouldn’t stop touching, and leaned in closer. Nagisa’s definition of personal space was completely off but this was getting a little out of hand, even for him. And he started feeling warm again. He had no idea what was going on—

Until Rei covered his lips with his own.

A muffled squeak echoed off the walls as both stayed completely still, not even breathing. Nagisa had shut his eyes and was pretty sure his entire _body,_ not just his face, was burning. And so was Rei.

Both of them pulled back and Rei nearly fell over because he had forgotten Nagisa’s legs were still right next to him. He must have been pretty thrown back.

“ _Why’d you do that_?” Nagisa’s voice had gone up a few octaves and it honestly made him feel like a mouse.

“I-I-I don’t know! I reacted out of instinct!” Rei’s arms flailed around and he buried his face in his hands, which didn’t help covering the redness underneath them. “I couldn’t help myself! I started feeling closer to you!”

Something clicked in the back of Nagisa’s head and he placed his hands on the floor so he could lean in closer without losing his balance. “You knew this experiment would work?”

“Of course! It’s an interesting subject and food for thought so I’ve read books about it not too long ago. Why do you think I agreed to do something like this in the first place? I wanted to see it for myself.” Rei hadn’t bothered to put his glasses back on and was now looking down at him with semi-defensive eyes.

“So you felt closer to me and…” Nagisa cleared his throat and put on his best smile. “wanted to kiss me? That’s what you felt? And you just went with it?”

“Well, yes.”

An exciting gleam appeared in Nagisa’s eyes as his mind registered everything. “Rei-chan…You like me? Or was that just the moment?”

“Nagisa-kun,” Rei said in the most adorable whiny voice he had ever heard. “I’ll go buy you that ice-cream if you stop asking those stupid and annoying questions.”

“No, I wanna know!”

That was something so utterly out of character for Nagisa that Rei didn’t know how to act for a moment. The fact that they were practically touching noses again was not helping, either, so Rei put his hands on his shoulders and meekly pushed him back. Nagisa felt himself becoming red in the face again and quickly pressed his lips together.

“Let me ask you the same question, then. Did you want to do the same thing when you started feeling closer to me?”

Blink. Blink. “Well, I was just thinking how nice it was to be that close to you and that I didn’t mind it, at all. And then I felt warm because you were getting psychically closer to me, so… I dunno, I didn’t really think about kissing you.”

“Oh,” Rei replied, his face slightly falling before he composed himself again. “But you’re not upset that I kissed you?”

Nagisa looked down at their legs for a moment, processing his words. “Not… really? I still feel a little warm if that helps.”

Not sure if it was out of embarrassment or something else, Nagisa shuffled around awkwardly and gave Rei a somewhat pleading look. The warmth grew until he actually found it hard to breathe because of the goofy smile Rei was giving him. His heart started beating faster again and his palms became clammy.

“Do you like _me_ , Nagisa-kun?”

That didn’t really help. Feeling even hotter now, Nagisa looked away and tried to focus his gaze on something that would calm his nerves. Rei’s pillow— _No_ , his books maybe – nope, what about his closet— Oh, god, _no_ , the chair behind his desk, then— yeah, never mind, Nagisa forced himself to look at the safest option: the floor. Still, their legs were pressed together and Rei was still holding his shoulders in a gentle grip and now that he thought about it, he had just been surprised, not disappointed or bothered and he was happy to hear that there was a chance that Rei liked him and _oh no_.

“... Can you try kissing me again?”

It only took a few seconds before Rei’s familiar lips shyly touched his own again. The hand on his right shoulder had casually slipped up to cup his warm cheek and Nagisa softly breathed through his nose when he felt Rei’s thumb softly running over his skin. Warmth washed over him like a nice hot shower, numbing his entire body until he was sure he’d fall over any second because it was becoming harder to hold himself up.

So many confusing thoughts were making his head all fuzzy, making it almost impossible to think straight. He could only think of Rei’s super soft lips (he probably used chapstick everyday because _wow_ ), his overwhelming presence, his warm hand still holding his jaw, the lingering taste of green tea he had been drinking a few minutes ago and just… Rei.

His heart fluttered.

Almost automatically, he loosely laid his arms on Rei’s shoulders and playfully pulled him closer because he wanted to deepen the kiss.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Rei whispered and Nagisa laughed softly in response, nodding.

“You still owe me that ice-cream, though.”

**Author's Note:**

> So to celebrate that I survived my first year of uni and am going to Japan next year, I'm writing flufffff. I hadn't written a [Friends to Lovers] fic yet, so there you go (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧  
> Hope you're having a lovely summer so far, filled with gay ships and rainbows and puppies and chocolate ~
> 
> Please don't forget to leave kudos/comments on your way out! ♡♡♡


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